Gundersen says “sandbags and nuclear power shouldn’t be put in the same sentence, but it is a lot better than Fukushima.” Gundersen explains that Ft. Calhoun was already shut down and has much less decay heat. He stresses that the auxiliary building and containment building are not his major concern. A small building, the intake structure, which contains the emergency service water pumps is needed for cooling the nuclear fuel and should be protected.

Another Nuclear Plant, Cooper (about 90 miles south of Ft. Calhoun), is still running and poses a bigger threat because of it’s decay heat. Gundersen believes that both Nuclear Plants will “ride out” this problem, as long as an upstream dam does not break. It an upstream dam were to break, he says, “All bets are off”.